Vol. 430 No. 2
292 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Health the plans, if any, he has for the improvement of facilities for the elderly including residential and community care; the shortfall of requirements in this area at present; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
This Government is committed to ensuring that elderly people receive the highest quality of health care available. The objectives of health policy, towards the elderly are set out in the report, The Years Ahead — A Policy for the Elderly.
They are to support the care of dependent elderly people at home for as long as possible and to ensure that when elderly people can no longer be cared for at home, that there are appropriate specialist and extended care facilities to meet their needs. The priorities for service development at present are to strengthen Community Care Services for elderly persons and their carers at home, to provide more specialist facilities in acute hospitals, to meet the needs of the increasing numbers of elderly mentally infirm, and to implement the Health (Nursing Homes) Act, 1990.
Considerable progress has been made towards implementing the recommendations contained in The Years Ahead. In recent years an additional £9 million was made available to the health boards to develop services for the elderly and their carers. This extra funding has enabled the health boards to expand home nursing services, to provide day care centres and day hospitals, to provide more departments of medicine of the elderly in general hospitals, to increase the number of physiotherapists and speech therapists in the community and to develop services for the elderly mentally inform.
